U.S. Kicks Drug-War Habit, Makes Peace With Afghan Poppies

[rug]

By David Axe
05.09.13
6:30 AM

ZARI, Afghanistan — Because of the poppies, the raw material for most of the world’s heroin, the list of things 1st Lt. Christopher Gackstatter and his 2nd Platoon can’t do in Sartok is far longer than the list of things they can.

Marching into the mud-walled village in t­­his sun-baked district of southern Afghanistan on an April 24 intelligence-gathering mission, the boyish 25-year-old lieutenant and his roughly dozen riflemen and machine gunners are mindful of the many poppy-related prohibitions, developed over 12 painful years of war, that have been passed down to their Bravo Company by the higher unit, 3-41 Infantry, part of the Texas-based 1st Brigade of the 1st Armored Division.

They’re not allowed to actually step foot in Sartok’s many acres of poppy fields or damage the fields in any way.

They can’t even threaten to destroy the fields or send in Afghan troops to burn, plow under or poison the delicate, pastel-colored flowers.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/05/afghan-poppies/

[Eleanors38]

1. The WOD figures prominently into U.S. foreign policy, but doesn't interrupt it. And we don't...

interrupt the flow of drugs.

[RainDog]

2. Illegal drugs are the only way small farmers make enough to survive

Poppy production decreased in Afghanistan for a while... don't know what the comparison is now, and farmers moved to cannabis. They've grown cannabis for more than 70 years - generations of farmers have cultivated cannabis for the commercial market.

Cannabis can yield more per acre, needs less maintenance or pesticides, etc. and is more benign.

Farmers just switch from one crop to another, depending upon which one is the focus of attention. Hashish produced from cannabis plants has a local market, as well, with some estimates that up to 70% of the male population partakes.

Farmers also hand-make hashish bars and sell to foreigners who go there to buy.

Rather than foreign-aid going to eradicate crops, it would be nice to use money to put people's kids (esp. females) in schools and let farmers create a tourist destination for those who go in for "exotic" vacations. Let the kids learn ways to empower the local economies with other skills.

imho.